Oscar Jan Hoogland, Amsterdam 1983, is an improviser, pianist, composer who is working actively in the field of both music and dance improvisation in Amsterdam. Doing so he works within fixed bands and groups as well as in first time collaboration settings. Besides improvising he has composed for several theater and dance pieces and has been writing for his own groups as well as for other ensembles and soloists. By now he is traveling the rest of Europe, Brazil and Argentina with his bands playing at festivals like Moers, North Sea Jazz, Dublins 12 points and Buenos Aires Jazz.

from an article by Kevin Whitehead:Oscar Jan Hoogland represents the so-called “fourth generation” of Dutch improvisers, in the lineage of Misha Mengelberg, Guus Janssen and Cor Fuhler―smart pianist/composers with an itch to make music that cuts across genres, who don’t take themselves so seriously, but whose whimsical music has real bite and brainpower.

Hoogland plays in a plethora of groups. They include: EKE, a trio with Yedo Gibson on reeds and Gerri Jäger on drums; a more self-consciously jazzy trio with cellist Harald Austbø and drummer Marcos Baggiani, which becomes the Ambush Party with Natalio Sued added on tenor. He plays duo with drummer Han Bennink, in Gibson’s roiling Royal Improvisers Orchestra, and in the bicycle-portable, words-and-music street outfit, the Bakfietsband. He’ll play solo piano, electric clavichord, or a concert on broken, discarded pianos.

“EKE is about creating something new, with an abstract approach to sound and interaction. I take it very seriously. The Ambush Party is about the game of instant composing, or instant songwriting. It’s also about being un-dogmatic, having aspects of serious sonic improvising, ironic Dutch theatrical impro, jazz and free jazz, romantic ECM soundscape jazz, modern contemporary music, pop songs, good taste and tastelessness. We love or hate all that music and in a free situation it all comes out. “ “The trio Hoogland/Austbø/Baggiani is about loving to write little jazz tunes. Jazz to me is playing a game I learned at school that I like a lot! And playing duo with Han feels almost outside of time―like we’ve played together forever.” “I like to be a chess player among tigers. But on other days I like to be the tiger myself.”

Oscar Jan Hoogland studied jazzpiano at the Conservatory of Utrecht HKU with Bert van den Brink and composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague KC with Gilius van Bergeijk and Cornelis de Bondt. Current bands are EKE, The Ambush Party, The Royal Improviser Orchestra, The Phonograph Orchestra, Chris Corstens Kwartet, trio Hoogland | Austbø | Baggiani, solo electric clavichord, [dB]danceBand, de Bakfietsband, Voiceover, Duo Han Bennink/Oscar Jan Hoogland and The Job.